Accompaniment
by El loopy
Summary: Post 3x19 'Orange is the new Maze'. Ella can see that Lucifer is stricken by the news of Chloe and Pierce, even if he won't admit it. When her hug doesn't work she needs to think of something else, which is how she ends up hovering indecisively outside of Lux. Oneshot. Canon Lucifer x Chloe. Chloe x Pierce.


**A/N I saw a clip of Tom Ellis and Aimee Garcia playing the piano as a duet and singing 'Creep' by Radiohead. I started to write something for it and this happened. Enjoy.**

Accompaniment

Ella had decided that Lucifer was in complete denial. He was _totally_ freaking out about Chloe and Pierce but absolutely would not admit it. "Oh, would you look up there," she pointed desperately at the CCTV camera, trying to deflect away from the awkwardness of Chloe's announcement that she was dating Pierce. Ella was personally thrilled. She loved seeing people happy and those two were _so_ cute. Lucifer though was clearly stricken, so she went for her go-to response. It was one of her five-star treatment Lopez hugs, but he didn't seem to appreciate it. Lucifer, she reminded herself too late, did not like hugs. Ella, however, was not the sort of person to be deterred when a friend was in need. Lucifer needed help, even if he wouldn't admit it. She decided that she would just have to find some other way.

* * *

That was how she found herself hovering indecisively outside of Lux later that week.

She'd marched her way over with a whole list of ideas for helping Lucifer recover from this emotional punch to the gut. These included copious amounts of alcohol, a good number of strippers and a further spontaneous trip to Las Vegas. The problem was that, much like with the hug, the ideas were great in principle, but by the time she'd reached the club doors she'd thought of multiple reasons why Lucifer would reject them. The only options remaining to her now were either to go inside and just 'be' with him, in case he needed a shoulder to cry on, or go home and leave him alone. Of the two, the second sounded more in keeping with what Lucifer would want. The problem was that what he wanted wasn't necessarily what he needed.

Ella determinedly took a step through the doorway, deciding to offer her company anyway. She went five steps before she stopped, frowned worriedly, and turned back. She didn't want to be too overbearing or worse, remind him that there was something he was upset about if he was enjoying himself. She stopped again, frozen in the corridor. What if he was in his pent house right now wishing that he had someone to talk to?

As Ella churned over her thoughts, the sound of a piano began to tease at her ears. It curled around her and reeled her in deeper. She'd never heard him play before, but she was sure it was him playing. It was haunting. Beautiful. Doubts silenced, reasons for being there forgotten, her feet followed the music at the prompting of her heart, and slowly descended the staircase onto the club's main floor. He was sat at his piano in the centre. His eyes were shut, and she could almost see the melody wrapping around him, twisting around each finger, up his arms. The notes drifted in threads of colour around his head.

"Lucifer?" she said his name softly, not wanting to break the spell. His eyes opened reluctantly.

"Miss Lopez" His fingers kept playing. "Can I help you with something?"

She realised she was staring and pulled it back.

"Yeah…I…uh…you know what," she wrinkled her nose dismissively, "it doesn't matter." She flapped one hand airily. "I wasn't even going to…you know…come in…" her voice disappeared again under the language of the piano. "But…I…heard the music and thought, hey that sounds really cool, and then…" He was watching her as he played, eyes fathomless, face unreadable. "I dunno, I sorta, ended – up – here." She swallowed the awkwardness the best she could. "I'll, um, I'll just go," she hiked a thumb over her shoulder at the door and was turning when he spoke.

"Do you play, Miss Lopez?" There was no seduction to his voice, no double-entendre, only genuine curiosity, every line of him softened by the notes.

"Yes. I mean, not like you, but," she was babbling and took a breath to calm it. "Yes."

His fingers stilled on the keys, the music emptying the room into a void of silence and he slid over, inclining his head at the bench.

"Join me?"

Ella's face lit up. "Really?" She was giving her one hundred-watt Ella grin, she could tell, as she approached the bench and sat. It was a bit of a squeeze. She tried not to think about her leg pressed to his leg.

"You sing?" he asked gravelly, mind obviously elsewhere.

His fingers had begun to press keys again and Ella picked up the accompaniment.

"I used to sing in choir," she replied, eyes on the piano, concentrating.

She felt the hum in his throat through their connected bodies and recognised the tune. It was sadness and longing and loss.

"Lucifer…" Her eyes left the keys to look at him, to ask, to make him confide in her, but his were shut again. He didn't want to talk, he wanted to play. "I know that one," she said instead, softly.

"Excellent," he responded distantly. "Sing with me then, Miss Lopez, if you don't mind."

"Sure." Her heart was breaking for him. It was painful to see how Chloe's choosing of another hurt him so much. She couldn't fix it with a hug, even if Lucifer had liked hugs, but she could be here for him in this. If it helped. If he needed it.

* * *

' _When you were here before  
Couldn't look you in the eye  
You're just like an angel  
Your skin makes me cry_

 _You float like a feather  
In a beautiful world  
And I wish I was special  
You're so…special'_

 **\- ' _Creep' by Radiohead_**


End file.
